‘Ted Lasso’ star Nick Mohammed weighs in on Nate’s redemption arc and the future of the Apple comedy series

Christopher Rosen
·5 min read
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The following piece contains spoilers for “So Long, Farewell,” the Season 3 finale of “Ted Lasso”

Add Emmy Award nominee Nick Mohammed to the list of “Ted Lasso” stars expecting the Season 3 finale to be the show’s last episode. Asked in an interview with Deadline if he felt “the chapter is closed” in terms of the story “Ted Lasso” has told over three seasons, Mohammed said, “Completely.”

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“We obviously knew where it was headed, and we read all the scripts, and we were doing all these interviews. In our heads, we’re like, ‘Wait. Once you’ve seen the series, you won’t probably won’t want anymore because there’s so much closure, so much catharsis in it being three seasons,’” Mohammed said. 

In the final episode of Season 3, Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) resigns as coach of AFC Richmond and moves back home to Kansas to be with his son. Lasso’s departure sets off a chain reaction for the other characters, including Mohammed’s Nate. The former “Wonder Kid” – who stabbed Lasso and his friends in the back at the end of Season 2 and went through a redemption arc in Season 3 that returned him to the club but as an assistant kit man – is shown working with new head coach Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and Lasso’s reliable assistant coach Willis Beard (Brendan Hunt) in a glimpse at the near-future during the closing moments.

“Ted’s not going to come back, because he’s not going to make that mistake. He’s got to stay with Melissa and Henry. That’s where his place is, and that’s where he’s happy,” Mohammed said to Deadline about why the show’s story had come to an end. “There’s always going to still be fixing for the characters to do. They’re not all of a sudden perfect. Ted’s still probably got his demons in there. But it is such a cathartic ending. I think it would be a shame to kind of be like, ‘And see you next year.’ It’s like, well, where are we starting off on that?”

Mohammed speculated that if there were more episodes of “Ted Lasso” – perhaps with a new title since its main character was taken off the board – it would probably not happen for some time. “I’m sure there will just be a sizable break between them, especially if we film another series. I don’t know. But we’ll see,” Mohammed said.

Nate was a divisive character throughout Season 3, particularly because of his actions at the end of Season 2. Asked about the critiques of his character’s arc – which included a seemingly quick resolution between Nate and his father after years of strife in their relationship – Mohammed said, “Everyone’s entitled to their own interpretation of it, even I questioned it.”

But, he added, viewers felt strongly about Nate because of where he started on the show. “The thing is, because Nate starts off as the underdog in Season 1, and because we rooted for him, we sort of feel, not that he owes us, but we feel like, ‘Hey, we’re on your side. We were there for you. We wanted to see you succeed.’ And he does. And then obviously, he starts his downward spiral in Season 2 and then betrays Ted,” Mohammed added. “I think redemption is a lot easier when your first introduction to a character is their behavior’s poor, and then they start to redeem themselves. It’s a really positive trajectory. But to kind of go that way, and then back down, it’s really difficult to recover from it. So that was definitely a challenge in Season 3, to allow people to question how they felt at the end.”

Mohammed is one of a number of “Ted Lasso” cast members who have weighed in about the show’s ending in the wake of the season finale. Goldstein – a two-time Emmy Award winner who is expected to win again for the show’s third season – posted a tribute to “Ted Lasso” on Instagram, writing in part, “I will miss getting to live in that world with them.”

Co-star Hannah Waddingham, who plays AFC Richmond team owner Rebecca on the show, previously told Deadline she wasn’t sure if Season 3 was the end for the show, but it definitely had the feeling of finality. “I think the only person that may be keeping it under his hat, and rightly so, is Jason. But we all certainly took it as the end of this three seasons’ story and just tried to honor it the best we could,” she said.

All episodes of “Ted Lasso” are streaming on Apple TV+.

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